


Expectations

by Inell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-03
Updated: 2006-12-03
Packaged: 2018-10-26 06:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10781142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inell/pseuds/Inell
Summary: Dedalus knows his mum is wrong.





	Expectations

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

  
Author's notes: **Day 18** [](http://community.livejournal.com/31_october_days/profile)[**31_october_days**](http://community.livejournal.com/31_october_days/)  


* * *

When all one ever has is low expectations, it’s easy to exceed them. This is a lesson that Dedalus learns at an early age. His mum calls him worthless and says he’ll never amount to anything all throughout his childhood. After he goes to Hogwarts, he hears his classmates snickering about how useless he is and the words ‘stupid’ and ‘dumb as a hippogriff’ become common taunts. He knows he’s not very bright, not like those people who always know the answer or say things that he can’t even understand, but he manages to pass his NEWTs with a lot of hard work and hours of studying.

Being an adult isn’t much better than being a kid, though. He gets a job sweeping up in a broom factory in Kent, makes enough money to rent a tidy little room from a half-deaf witch who calls him a ‘sweet young boy’, and doesn’t mind the new taunts so much. When the war starts, he doesn’t hesitate to join the Order and do what he can to help. It’s not a lot, but it’s the best he can do, so he expects that makes it okay. By the time the war is over and little Harry Potter manages to defeat Voldemort, Dedalus is ready to go back to sweeping and try to forget the death and destruction that have filled the last few years.

It’s almost surreal to find himself standing in a field nearly twenty years later watching not-so-little-anymore Harry Potter face Voldemort again. It ends in a flash of light that makes him see spots before his vision clears. He looks around and sees the exhausted but triumphant faces of his friends, as these children don’t call him stupid or say he’s senseless in judgmental tones so they’ve earned the title, and smiles because he knows his mother is wrong.

End


End file.
